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December 04, 2008

Olympians and Brave Martyrs - Justice Please!

Who is greater - An Olympian or an Indian Army martyr? I'm not trying to put down my own conclusions here, but to put certain facts in black and white and make the world think, realize and elicit public opinion.

When Abhinav Bindra won a Olympic Gold medal in the recently concluded Beijing Olympics, he was awarded Rs.1 crore by the Punjab Government. In the recent terror attach on Mumbai's Taj hotel, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan lost his life while fighting the terrorists. His family was compensated with Rs.5 Lakh

Abhinav Bindra is the only son to his parents, and so is Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

Both of them made India proud

Incidently, both Bindra and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan are shooters (though different purposes)

Both are Indians

The only difference is that Abhinav Bindra is an Olympian while Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan was with the Indian Army. Infact, the latter did save the lives of many Indians and foreign visitors. When both have done India proud, shouldn't the compensation be 'atleast' comparable?

Even, the Kerela Chief Minister insulted this brave martyr. The exact words he said was "If not a Martyr, not even a dog would have visited him". See the ho for more details on this. Shame on you, Mr. Kerela Chief Minister!

My Take: I want both Olympic medal winners and brave martyrs of the Indian military forces to be treated equal. The latter's family needs to be compensated well. The awards given to Olympians will encourage more people to get into the sport and take it seriously. Similarly, I want the compensations given to martyrs of Indian military forces to be tantamount to that of the awards given to Olympians. Only then, will more young people in India (and their families) be motivated to serve the Indian military forces.